


John Didn't Forgive Mary; He Read the AGRA Flash Drive and Lied to Both Sherlock and Mary About It

by wellthengameover



Series: Sherlock Meta [6]
Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: A.G.R.A., Analysis, Character Analysis, Episode: s03e03 His Last Vow, Lies, Meta, Other, Sherlock Meta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-16
Updated: 2015-11-16
Packaged: 2018-05-01 23:15:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,021
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5224724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wellthengameover/pseuds/wellthengameover
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Either:</p><p>    a) John’s being honorable and going back to Mary for the baby<br/>b) John read the flash drive, lied about it, and is plotting</p><p>Based on John's behavior in <em>His Last Vow</em>, I believe the second option is more likely.</p>
            </blockquote>





	John Didn't Forgive Mary; He Read the AGRA Flash Drive and Lied to Both Sherlock and Mary About It

Either:

  * John’s being honorable and going back to Mary for the baby 
  * John read the flash drive, lied about it, and is plotting either by himself or with Mycroft ([not Sherlock](http://wellthengameover.tumblr.com/post/97647703062/sherlock-and-john-arent-plotting-together-against-mary)) 



There are some weird looks that imply he read the flash drive:

1) When Mary asks if John read the flash drive, he deflects twice and doesn’t answer:

> MARY: So, have you read it?  
>  JOHN: W-would you come here a moment?  
>  MARY: No. Tell me. Have you?  
>  JOHN: _Just_ … come here.

Deflection, a classic lying tell. And a very “John” lying tell; he’s not good at straight-up lying, so _he doesn’t lie_. He doesn’t answer the question at all. When else does he deflect? When he says “I’m not gay” in answer to questions about his feelings for Sherlock. 

2) John looks down and turns the flash drive over in his hand, looking at it, when Mary asks him about it:

  
  


He’s definitely thinking something over. I don’t think that he’s wondering if maybe he should’ve read the flash drive after all - thinking “This is my last chance to back out” - because that’s not really in John’s character, and he has had _six months_ to decide. So this is another lying tell from John.

3) John awkwardly hesitates when he throws the flash drive into the fire. After he says “The problems of your past are your business; the problems of your future are my privilege,” Mary just looks at him, still worried, like she’s not sure if that was actually forgiveness or not:

Then John looks at the flash drive again:

There’s a slightly awkward pause as Mary continues to look worried:

John gives her a very odd look out of the corner of his eye, checking her face:

(This is not paused on a weird spot or something; he really does give her this exact look and doesn’t look her more fully in the face.)

And _then_ John tosses the flash drive in the fire and says “No, I didn’t read it.” To me, this reads as John thinking "Okay, am I actually going to have to lie? Okay, yep.” 

John’s face in the picture above is a very shifty look. That is not the face of a man who is being open about everything. I really can’t imagine that this means anything but that he’s lying. 

4) The fact that we get such a clear shot of the flash drive John threw into the fire makes me think we’re supposed to notice it’s different than the one he showed Mary a moment ago:

  


Check out the different R’s and punctuation on the R’s. The top pictures has maybe a dot, maybe not, but it’s attached to the R; the second picture definitely has a clearly defined dot, clearly separated from the R. Two different flash drives.

5) At Christmas, John won’t look Mary in the face except when he’s actually speaking to her at the moment:

This makes me think he’s hiding something.

6) John smirks when Mary hands him the flash drive at Baker Street and asks him not to read it in front of her:

  


_“Right, like that’s gonna happen.”_

7) I think the show implies that John is letting CAM flick his face for Sherlock, not Mary. While he’s flicking John’s face, twice CAM says “For Mary.” The first time, the camera cuts to Sherlock’s face:

The second time, John immediately says “Sherlock.” (John’s asking Sherlock if there’s anything he can do, but he says it so quickly and like a statement, not a question, so it sounds like a correction.): 

But both times CAM implies that John is letting him do this for Mary, your attention is brought to Sherlock instead. John thinks the only way to keep Sherlock safe is to keep Mary safe. He’s letting CAM flick his face for Sherlock.

8) John is _so_ angry with Mary in the Empty House Reveal and the Watsons’ Have A Domestic. People tend to forget this because the show keeps cutting back and and forth to Christmas - _which is probably exactly why they showed it that way, to trick you._ The only reason he even agrees to listen to Mary that night at all is because Sherlock tells him to. Otherwise it’s pretty clear he would’ve left her that night. This is the last look you see him give her before Christmas:

He really looks like he’s going to kill her, TBH. He’s certainly not going to forgive her. Think about some of the things he says in that conversation: _“That’s what you are now, Mary; you’re a client”_ and _“What did I ever do, my whole life, to deserve you”_ \- these are not temporary statements.

9) John stays away for _six months_ (the amount of time that it takes for Mary to go from “not visibly pregnant at all” to “9-months extremely pregnant”) and pretty clearly doesn’t speak to Mary once, since she says “Oh, are we doing conversation today?” Six months means he’s never coming back. 

That was the evidence from within HLV. **Here’s why else I think that John read the flash drive, lied about it, and is plotting about Mary:**

1) Allow me to clarify something now: **John can’t send Mary to jail himself in HLV**. He literally just can’t. Sherlock can; John can’t. I see this all the time: “ _There’s no reason for John to plot against Mary; if he was done with her, he could just send her to jail._ ” But … he can’t.

John doesn’t have any evidence who shot Sherlock. He can’t prove anything of what he heard in the Empty House. He doesn’t have the bullet, and even if he did, Mary surely has ditched the gun. Sherlock (or CAM) could send Mary to jail because he was there when she shot him, he knows for sure; John can’t because he doesn’t have any evidence. The worst crime John can prove is that Mary stole someone’s identity. (No, [there’s nothing helpful on the flash drive he could use](http://wellthengameover.tumblr.com/post/96431995747/agra); you really think Mary gave them evidence that would send her to jail for the rest of her life?)

And even if John and Sherlock (and Mycroft) worked together to send Mary to jail for shooting Sherlock, she’d only go to jail for attempted murder. If John wants to put Mary away for life, he needs evidence of other stuff she’s done. 

2) Watson in pretty much all Sherlock Holmes films - and somewhat in ACD - is pretty much of a bumbling idiot. Mofftisson have gone way out of their way not to stereotype John like that - and [they admit it](http://skulls-and-tea.tumblr.com/post/107529037326/interviewer-was-it-difficult-getting-the). Instead, they’ve made him one of the most complicated characters around. I don’t believe they’re going to make him basically give up now. **If John’s _not_ scheming against Mary, it begins to just turn him into [the Hero’s Reward](http://allthetropes.wikia.com/wiki/Standard_Hero_Reward).** John hasn’t really done anything to help himself; Sherlock rescues him from his mean wife and then gets to snog him at the end. It makes the John-and-Sherlock relationship pretty unequal, and I don’t think Mofftisson would do that.

3) In John’s five-season character arc, it just makes sense. A lot of bad things have happened to John recently and he’s basically gone along with them. But likely this was the last straw and John’s started pushing back. Three-fifths of the way through the story is a natural time for the tide to turn in terms of character development. And I think we can see that it did: the point-of-no-return happened and [**John picked Sherlock over literally** _ **everything**_ **in the Watsons Have A Domestic** ,including his own self-preservation, which he had desperately been trying to hold onto throughout S3:](http://wellthengameover.tumblr.com/post/120197875652/i-always-see-stuff-about-how-sherlock-made-john-a)

I always see stuff about how “Sherlock made John a vow; it’s time for John to do the same, but John has: _  
_

> JOHN: Your way. Always your way. 

There’s a similarity between “Your way, always your way” and “Nobody could be that clever” / “You could,” but this is more. _We_ know that the corollary to “You could [be that clever]” is “And even if you weren’t, I wouldn’t care,” but Sherlock doesn’t know that. John doesn’t say that. “You could” is “I believe in you unwaveringly because I know that you’re right, that you’re smart. I’m on your side because you’re always right.”

“Your way, always your way” is “I’m on your side, even when you’re wrong.”

John’s angry when he says this. He doesn’t want to do what Sherlock keeps telling him to do. He doesn’t like Sherlock’s plan of listening to Mary. He doesn’t agree with it. He thinks it’s wrong.

This conversation is one of the worst places their relationship has ever been at, if not theworst, and John’s still siding with Sherlock. Not even siding with Sherlock over Mary, but just siding with Sherlock period. John wants to walk out; he wants to not side with either of them. But he’s going to back Sherlock’s play anyway, not because he thinks it’s right - he clearly doesn’t - but because it’s _Sherlock’s._

I really don’t think there’s any chance he’s not going to read the flash drive or forgive Mary after having told Sherlock “I’m on your side, even when you’re wrong.”

4) John’s gone along with a lot of bad stuff lately, but it was all stuff that happened _to him._ Mary shooting Sherlock happened _to Sherlock._ We’ve always known that John’s much more active in defense of Sherlock than in defense of himself. **Maybe he’s willing to let Mary treat him badly, but he’s never willing to let her treat Sherlock badly.**

5) Sherlock is going to be shocked when he finds out John has had his own plan. Seeing how determined John was has got to **help in Sherlock telling John future plans** , which I’m almost positive will be [the final thing that brings them together](http://wellthengameover.tumblr.com/post/102047149496/parallels-between-jim-and-the-cabbie-from-asip).

6) We frankly just don’t know what John’s doing about mostly anything because S3 was written from Sherlock’s POV (third-person in HLV). So we’ve got **no information that really contradicts John scheming** , and in fact, the fact that it’s ambiguous hints that he’s scheming because there’s no reason to make it ambiguous if he’s not. The _only_ evidence that we have that he’s forgiven Mary is that he _says_ he hasn’t read the flash drive and goes back to her, but a) he acts like he’s read the flash drive; and b) characters on this show lie all the time. So I’m not sure why we assume that he’s telling the truth.

7) John reading the flash drive does something interesting for the storyline. For the first time ever, something has happened that I _don’t think Jim expected_. Jim doesn’t consider John a threat; Jim doesn’t consider John worthy of respect; Jim doesn’t really consider John at all. Jim controls all the major players ([Mycroft](http://wellthengameover.tumblr.com/post/97328231152/how-we-know-mycroft-is-under-jims-thumb), [Mary](http://wellthengameover.tumblr.com/post/95870591462/mary-as-moran-vs-mary-as-birdy-theyre-both-true), [Janine](http://wellthengameover.tumblr.com/post/101964746533/janine-moriarty)) except Sherlock and John, but [Jim can play Sherlock as well as if Sherlock were one of his own pieces](http://loudest-subtext-in-television.tumblr.com/post/79041544289/m-theory-mycroft-moriarty-and-magnussens-shared). [The one piece Jim _can’t_ seem to control is John](http://wellthengameover.tumblr.com/post/102047149496/parallels-between-jim-and-the-cabbie-from-asip). So if John read the flash drive, there’s something starting to go wrong with Jim’s plans, and it’s **the thing that was _always_ going to go wrong with Jim’s plans: that Jim doesn’t understand how much Sherlock and John love each other**.

8) John **Trust-Issues** Watson is clearly going to read the flash drive. This is the _first_ fact we learn about him: that he doesn’t trust people. Mary has lied to him about _everything_. He’s never going to just let that slide.

John is _not_ a forgiving person. This is a fandom characterization of John as “nice” or “kind” or “forgiving” or “a care-taker,” based on John’s _own unreliable narration_ of S1 and S2. It’s not exactly a shock that John would have cast himself in a nicer light than he really is. Yes, he forgave Sherlock pretty fast in TEH, but he a) still tried to keep his emotional distance from Sherlock all through S3 even after apparently forgiving him; and b) hasn’t forgiven his own sister in ASiP for … drinking? Trying to make him talk about his feelings?

9) **John “being honorable about the baby” doesn’t really make any sense.** Any benefits to having your kid be raised by two parents do _not_ outweigh the risks of having your kid be raised by:

  * an assassin
  * with people actively searching for her
  * people who probably wouldn’t hesitate to use the kid as leverage against her
  * a woman that you, the father, hate, so it’s not like it’s going to be a great home environment
  * [a psychopath ](http://ifyouhaveenoughnerve.tumblr.com/post/77363398901/penitence-paradox-and-psychopathy-why-mary-is-a)



Maybe not the most responsible fatherhood choice to let Mary be involved with this kid. 

> hon·or·a·ble:moral, ethical, principled, righteous

It is in no way “moral, ethical, principled, or righteous” to forgive to a freelance assassin who shot a man who was not a physical threat to her regardless of whether or not she’s pregnant with your kid. There’s pretty much _no_ circumstance in which it would be “honorable” to forgive a freelance assassin who shot a man who was not a physical threat to her. Why would you think John thinks being pregnant outweighs killing people for money?

If John is concerned about the baby, all he has to do is tell Sherlock that he hasn’t forgiven Mary and Sherlock can send Mary to jail, and the baby can be born in jail.This is a normal thing. How do you think the real world deals with real pregnant women who commit crimes? Just let them go free until they give birth? No, the babies are born in jail. The idea that John needs to keep Mary close until the baby is born is doesn’t make any sense.

****Here’s why I think John isn't plotting with Sherlock during HLV:** **

To clarify, I don’t think Sherlock has forgiven Mary either, but I don’t think either of them know the other hasn’t forgiven Mary. Here’s why:

 **1) It’s too early in the narrative arc.**  This is the big reason. [Sherlock has always left John out-of-the-loop for his own protection in regard to Jim (and as Mary is Moran, she’s part of Jim). Sherlock’s always done this (gets John to go to Sarah’s in TGG before the pool; lets John to go check on Mrs. Hudson in TRF) and it’s never really worked out great for anyone. Sherlock telling John the big, overall plan has got to be the final thing that brings them together](http://wellthengameover.tumblr.com/post/120456046642/sherlock-protecting-john), so it really is finally “just the two of them against the rest of the world.” Because right now, John thinks Sherlock doesn’t trust him. 

> SHERLOCK: … I worried that, you know, you might say something indiscreet.  
>  JOHN: What?  
>  SHERLOCK: Well, you know, let the cat out of the bag.  
>  JOHN: Oh, so this is _my_ fault?! ([x](http://arianedevere.livejournal.com/64080.html))

Sherlock telling John the full plan, asking for John’s help, has got to be the final thing that brings them together because it’s the final step from “a great man” to “a good one.” Sherlock asking for help will tear-down of the sociopath persona - which he thinks he’s got to keep up to keep John around for the danger - and the final tear-down of the sociopath persona is what John will need to see how much Sherlock loves and needs him. That clearly hasn’t happened by the end of HLV, given what happens at Appledore and on the tarmac.

People have been saying that if Sherlock doesn’t tell John the whole plan about Mary, Sherlock hasn’t learned anything from Reichenbach, but that’s not _quite_ true. He’s already done more than he did in TRF to bring John in. Sherlock’s taking steps, not going cold-turkey - which makes perfect sense. He did the Empty House Reveal after he realized Mary was Moran. He told John some things, which was more than he did in TRF. In TRF, when John would ask him things, Sherlock would just tell him he wasn’t going to tell him. Now he’s telling John a minimum of information. So Sherlock is making progress in telling John things.

(When John finds out Sherlock didn’t tell him about Mary being Moran, I think it’s quite possible John will walk out at the end of [the season four finale](http://wellthengameover.tumblr.com/post/96502039387/the-season-four-finale). And that will definitely be a wake-up call to Sherlock. But he is learning. John having read the flash drive and plotting about Mary will be a step toward getting John and Sherlock together. Sherlock is going to be pretty pole-axed when he finds out John had his own plan all along, and that’s got to help in Sherlock telling John future plans.)

**2) This line in HLV:**

>   
>  ****
> 
> SHERLOCK: D’you want your wife to be safe?  
>  JOHN: Yeah, of course I do.

If they were scheming together about Mary, they would just straight up not say this. If they were _both scheming separately_ , they still could, but if they’re on the same page about Mary being a villain and both know that the other one knows, there’s no way this exchange would go down. Sherlock would already know the answer and it would be “Nope!”

(I _don’t_ think this is proof that John has truly forgiven Mary. He would still say this if he was a) going back to her to be honorable, or b) read the flash drive and is scheming. If he’s being honorable about the baby, he would definitely say this because he would be trying to convince himself he cares about Mary. If he’s read the flash drive and has a plan that he’s lying to Sherlock about, then he’s lying to Sherlock about a lot of things in order to keep Sherlock safe. Including this. He doesn’t want Sherlock to know what he’s doing, so he’d definitely lie then, too.) The only think I think this line tells you _for sure_ is that John and Sherlock don’t know that the other one thinks Mary is a villain.

 **3) John doesn’t know Sherlock has a long game and is just playing along.** [John thinks Sherlock really does trust Mary](http://wellthengameover.tumblr.com/post/97647901957/sherlock-and-john-in-the-watsons-have-a-domestic). It’s pretty obvious from the end of HLV that John and Sherlock haven’t talked about Mary. Sherlock can’t be the one to start this conversation. He can’t be the one to end John and Mary’s marriage; it has to be John’s decision. But if John’s already decided he’s one hundred percent done with Mary and thinks “Okay, Sherlock just said that stuff in the empty house and at Baker Street to keep me safe, but it was total BS,” why doesn’t he come to Sherlock in the hospital and talk about it? But he obviously _hasn’t,_ and really the only reason for that is that he doesn’t think Sherlock’s got some kind of long game - or at least he isn’t sure enough that Sherlock does to ask him about it.

I certainly don’t think John is going to be very surprised to find out that Sherlock has a long game about Mary - Sherlock often does have some sort of trick up his sleeve, and John generally expects him to. My point is only that John doesn’t know what it is and isn’t completely sure that it exists. I think it’s likely that John thought Sherlock had a plan about Mary before they went to Appledore, but once Sherlock shot CAM apparently for Mary, I think John is now confused about how Sherlock feels about Mary.

It’s unfortunate that Sherlock can’t just say to John “I have a long game. I _can’t tell you_ what it is because then you wouldn’t be able to do it. But I need you to go back to Mary.” But if Sherlock could do that, then he wouldn’t really be Sherlock. To say that, he would have to understand just how much John trusts him, and he doesn’t quite, yet. He thinks John loves him for the hero-worship and danger aspect - the sociopath persona aspect - so of course he thinks John wouldn’t just blindly trust him. Which is so depressing because John absolutely would.

 **4) The tarmac scene.** People have speculated that it’s faked, but I don’t think it can be. Mofftisson are allowed to - and supposed to - trick us when it comes to the plot. To do that, they might need to trick us with some of the emotions of minor characters, but they can’t sacrifice the big emotional interactions of the two main characters. Then you end up with backward character development. The whole _point_ is the relationship between Sherlock and John; if they trick us about that, we can’t really be invested in their relationship. This is one of the reasons why [I don’t think Lazarus can possibly be true](http://wellthengameover.tumblr.com/post/100860680167/the-roof-at-reichenbach), either: if Sherlock was totally in control of Reichenbach, we lose the character development from TRF and Sherlock just acted as a genius sociopath. This story is about him learning to _not_ do that, so he has to be progressing. If the big-time emotions between John and Sherlock aren’t real, we go backward in the character-arc, and then we just have to have that same type of scene again later for real, which is just messy.

**Here’s why I think John is plotting with Mycroft during HLV:**

If John has decided he wants to know more about Mary - if he wants to know if she’s still a threat to Sherlock; if he wants more information than is on the flash drive; if he doesn’t trust [what’s on the flash drive](http://wellthengameover.tumblr.com/post/96431995747/agra); if he wants to know why Sherlock is protecting Mary; if he wants to take out Mary but [can’t talk to Sherlock about it](http://wellthengameover.tumblr.com/post/97647703062/sherlock-and-john-arent-plotting-together-against-mary); if he just wants to know _more_ before he makes any kind of decision - he’s going to go to Mycroft. It’s the obvious choice. John may be continuously irritated with Mycroft, but he a) does realize Mycroft has access to a lot of information and would likely know something about Mary; and b) knows that Mycroft cares about Sherlock. John and Mycroft often disagree on _how_ best to care for Sherlock, but they both realize they’re on the same side. Remember the drugs bust in HLV?

Quite possibly foreshadowing. Definitely reminding you that John and Mycroft know how to work together to protect Sherlock, and they’re not above going behind Sherlock’s back to do it.

But more importantly, Mycroft is the go-to guy for information. If John’s not happy with what he knows, he’ll go to Mycroft to find out more. 

Both Mycroft-as-Mycroft and Mycroft-as-Under-Jim’s-Thumb want John to go back to Mary. Jim wants John to go back to Mary to keep Sherlock and John apart. Mycroft probably just wants to send Mary to jail, but Jim won’t let him, so the next best thing is to have John go back to Mary, which would keep Sherlock safe as long as Mary is content. So Mycroft _can’t_ tell John Mary is Moran, but he _can_ encourage John to go back to Mary. Mycroft tells John they need more information on Mary - which isn’t true: Mycroft has the information; he just can’t use it. 

**However: Jim thinks he’s got his best assassin all cuddled up to Sherlock and John, but Mycroft knows what’s _actually_ happening is that he’s got a snarly ex-soldier who would do _anything_ for Sherlock all cuddled up to Jim’s best assassin. [Mycroft’s using this to finally try to take down Jim.](http://wellthengameover.tumblr.com/post/118535981547/think-its-the-new-sexy-the-trials-of-mycroft)**

This doesn’t mean John doesn’t believe Sherlock in the [Watsons Have A Domestic scene](http://wellthengameover.tumblr.com/post/97647901957/sherlock-and-john-in-the-watsons-have-a-domestic). He comes to be dubious of the "surgery” explanation, but I think he still believes Sherlock is right that John is basically a failure doomed to only love psychopaths. I just think **his fear for Sherlock’s safety trumps** that: “So I’m completely screwed up and I’ll never get any better and I’ll always be in love with him and he’ll never love me, but _it doesn’t matter_ ; I’ll still do anything to protect him.”

So basically **Sherlock is lying to John about Mary to keep John safe, and John is lying to Sherlock about Mary to keep Sherlock safe.** Does this sound like their kind of epic miscommunication? Yep.

**Author's Note:**

> Transcribed from [my meta blog on tumblr](http://wellthengameover.tumblr.com/my-sherlock-meta). Much more there.


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